James Muwakkil, 50, NAACP president

Written by

Lee County sheriff Mike Scott / Stephen Hayford/news-press.com

Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott criticized the county NAACP in a strongly worded letter this week, and announced his decision not to donate to the organization for the first time in five years.

“I simply find myself unable to support your professional agenda, which I believe actually contradicts the end goal of eliminating double standards,” Scott said Tuesday in a letter addressed to James Muwakkil, president of the NAACP Lee County branch.

Muwakkil called the letter vicious and a low blow, and said the sheriff’s accusations were not researched.

The sheriff’s office has donated to the NAACP's annual Freedom Fund Awards Banquet the past three years, buying a table for $1,500 last year, sheriff records indicate.

Scott declined the invitation to do so this year, citing two reasons. First, Scott said he is upset by the local NAACP’s disapproval at the not guilty verdict a Sanford jury gave George Zimmerman this month. Zimmerman, who is Hispanic, was accused of fatally shooting Trayvon Martin, an unarmed, black 17-year-old. The jury found Zimmerman acted in self-defense, but some, including the local NAACP, questioned the role race played in the case.

Instead of worrying about a case many miles north, the Lee County NAACP should worry about the young black men dying in Fort Myers shootings, Scott said in the letter.

Scott’s office declined comment Thursday. He has refused comment and limited his employees’ comments to The News-Press since February 2012.

“To date, I am unaware of any appreciable attention or public outcry the NAACP locally or nationally have afforded these issues in our own, proverbial backyard,” Scott said in the letter.

Muwakkil said the sheriff is wrong — stopping homicides is one of his organization’s top priorities.

“We’ve been addressing crime,” Muwakkil said, “(by) putting in place of crime opportunities for employment.”

Muwakkil gave several examples, including youth programs, scholarships and job fairs in the 33916 ZIP code — where many of the city’s homicides occur.

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Scott’s second complaint was against the Lee County NAACP’s issue with a painting in the county commission chambers of Confederate army Gen. Robert E. Lee, for whom the county is named. Everyone should feel comfortable in the chambers, not made to look at a symbol reminiscent of slavery, Muwakkil said.

Scott said the request to remove the painting promotes a double standard, because the NAACP has not decried the use of the “N-word” by hip-hop artists.

“The rampant use of the (“N-word”) in the wildly popular hip-hop culture that floods the ears of youth across this nation and is comprised primarily of black artists,” Scott said in his letter, “apparently stirs little to no emotion among blacks, but the portrait of General Lee does?”

The Lee County NAACP does not condone use of the “N-word,” Muwakkil said.

In his letter, Scott used the full word twice, in quotations, when making his point about its prominence in popular culture.

“He didn’t need to use the entire word,” Muwakkil said. “It was ugly and it was offensive and it was unmanly and it was un-sheriff-like.”

Muwakkil said he interprets Scott’s letter as a withdrawal of support from Lee County’s black community. He plans to file a complaint with the Florida Commission on Ethics, Gov. Rick Scott’s office and the national NAACP office.

The Florida Commission on Ethics provides legally binding opinions on the conduct of public officials.

“In a scenario like that,” spokeswoman Kerrie Stillman said, “the only possible ethics standard you could analyze that under would be whether there was any corrupt misuse of position.”

That would mean an official’s actions were inconsistent with proper performance of duty, and they were done for personal benefit or the benefit of someone else.

Lee County Commissioners Larry Kiker, Cecil Pendergrass and John Manning declined to comment on Scott’s letter.

“I wouldn’t comment on his judgment,” Manning said. “He is an elected official — he is welcome to have his opinion just as the NAACP is welcome to theirs.”